In Love With Mr. Billionaire

CHAPTER 23 - ACCOMPANY ME

"Where do you want to have lunch?" Aaron asked. He tilted his head in my direction, his eyes stayed on the road ahead.

"I get to choose?" I asked with a smile. I thought he was going to take me again to another one of those big luxurious restaurants where food bills were higher than my pay. The fact that he may turn out to actually own that freaking place was also a very real possibility.

"You get to choose," he smiled back.

"Okay then."

I gave him directions as he drove through the busy evening traffic.

I was taking him to a small burger shop in a less privileged part of the city. It was the ultimate favorite place for me to eat.

Being an artist, my mother was always searching for art and creativity all around her. Whether it was the shape of the clouds in the sky or random graffiti on a wall or the way flowers were arranged in a bouquet, she loved all of it. The burger place was one such corner of the world she had fallen in love with. And in turn, I had fallen in love with it too.

The burgers were great, no doubt. But it was the ambience that pulled her back to it every time. The murals on the wall spoke to the artist in her in a language that I was too young to understand.

Even after dad had put restrictions on her going out of the house without his permission, we had snuck out so many times. Going around the city and ending our days with burgers and art.

It had so many good memories and I had never been able to visit it after she was gone. There were times when I had thought about it but never could make up my mind to do it. The place was just a stop for burgers for me as a child. But once mom was gone, it had become something sacred. It would have felt like a sin to go and experience it when she wasn't there to experience it herself.

We got out of the car and Aaron looked skeptical about the place. It did look like an old shabby cellar from the outside. I took his hand and pulled him inside.

This place will always be associated with my mother. He was going to take me to see his father. It made me realize how much I wanted him to meet my mother. She wasn't there. I could not officially take him to her and introduce them, but this was the closest I could do. I was going to introduce him to a part of her that I had buried so deep in my heart for so long.

The place did not have a lot of crowd. The interior had changed a lot but the wall with the murals was still there. The staff had changed over the years, there was no similar face but the feeling of visiting an old memory overpowered any disappointment I felt about the change.

"What is this place?" Aaron said, sitting at the farther corner, away from the people.

"The best burger place," I told him.

"Doesn't look like the best," he commented looking around himself.

He was right. It didn't look the best. It was old, poorly lit with random paintings on the wall, but she had loved it here. It may not look the best, but it sure did feel like the best.

A boy came to take our orders. I ordered my favorite cheeseburger with lots of onion rings, for both Aaron and myself. Till our orders came, I asked Aaron about his dad. I already knew he was not going to like me but I was going to make an effort.

Aaron told me about his parents. He did not have much to say about his father but once he started talking about his mother, I could see the melancholy in his eyes. It felt so raw and relatable.

Our burgers arrived and we dug in. It took a while for Aaron to get accustomed to the place, but once he took a bite of the burger, he was impressed.

"This exceeded my expectations," Aaron commented.